"And then all the host of Rohan burst into song, and they sang as they slew, for the joy of the battle was on them, and the sound of their singing that was fair and terrible came even to the City."

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Eschatology Orientation

Eschatology
is the study of last things or the end times. Eschatology includes the study of
heaven and hell, as well as related subjects. Over the last two hundred years, an interest in eschatology has skyrocketed. This has produced three basic views of the history of the world and the reign of Christ on earth. A primary way of identifying these various eschatological beliefs is the use of the term "millennium." Millennium refers to the 1,000 year reign of
Christ mentioned in Revelation 20. Two questions are answered by these views: When does Christ reign and is his reign literally 1,000 years? Below are the three basic views of this millennium. These are necessarily
simplistic, but should give you a general perspective on each.

1.Pre-millennialism
is the dominant view of the end times in American churches today. This view
basically says that the world will be slowly overcome by Satan until eventually
all that is left is a remnant of believers. At this point Christ will return
and set up His millennial kingdom here on earth. For pre-mils the ethnic Jews figure
prominently, as Christ will return to fulfill all the OT promises to Abraham in
a literal way. Thus Israel
will literally dwell in the land and the Temple
will be rebuilt. The “pre” means Christ will return before the Millennium.

2.Amillennialism
is the belief that there is no millennial kingdom here on earth. Good and evil
will both grow equally throughout time, until the world ends. Christ reigns right now in the Church, but
the picture in Revelation 20 refers to Christians ruling with Christ in Heaven,
not to any type of ruling here on earth.

3.Post-millennialism
is the final position. This viewpoint
sees the Kingdom
of Christ growing in time
and history through the preaching of the Word, suffering of believers, and
discipleship. This viewpoint says that Christ will return after His Kingdom has
already been established on earth. This
viewpoint does not see the total eradication of evil, but does see the nations
being brought to Christ and there being a glorious kingdom here on earth. Some
post-mils see this as a literal 1,000 years at the end of time. Others see the
1,000 years as symbolic.

There are a couple of other ways of
looking at this. One way is to ask does a person believe the Kingdom of Christ
will eventually cover the earth. Is their eschatology optimistic about the
growth of the Church in history? Or does the person believe things will get
worse and worse or stay basically the same? Everyone believes Christ wins in
the end. The question is does He win in time and history.

One can also use the parable of the
wheat and the tares found in Matthew 13 to illustrate the three views. A
pre-mil would say that when Christ comes there will be very few wheat and lots
of tares. An a-mil would say it will be around 50/50, an equal number of wheat
and tares. A post-mil would say that when Christ returns there will be a whole
lot of wheat and a few tares.

2 comments:

I think it is important to note the difference between Historic Pre-Mil and Dispensational Pre-Mil. One major difference being the lack of the rapture and the more biblical based Historic Pre-mil position.

Let the saints be joyful in glory, let them sing aloud on their beds, let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two edged sword in their hand, to execute vengeance on the nations, and punishments on the peoples; to bind the kings with chains and their nobles with fetters of iron. Psalm 149:5-8